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Hollande Hopes for New Normandy Four Meeting on Ukraine

According to reports, French President Francois Hollande has expressed hope for holding another Normandy Four format meeting on settling the Ukrainian conflict to Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

French President Francois Hollande has expressed hope for holding another Normandy Four format meeting on settling the Ukrainian conflict to Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French presidency said Tuesday.

The three leaders held talks over the phone earlier in the day. The discussion focused on the Ukrainian crisis and the peace process laid out in the Minsk accords.

"Hollande stressed that the risk of escalation would jeopardize the peace process… The president also expressed hope that in the near future conditions will be right for holding a new meeting in the Normandy Four format (Germany, Russia, Ukraine, France) to discuss further steps in settling the crisis," the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

The president stressed that all the parties to the Minsk accords should implement their commitments both in terms of security and political changes. Hollande also expressed concern with the increase in ceasefire violations registered by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) over recent weeks.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and eastern Ukraine's pro-independence militias signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk after talks of the Normandy Four countries.

The Normandy Four is a diplomatic group of senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France that was assembled to resolve the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine's Donbas region.